


Telling Tales

by 1lostone



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: M/M, Mild Gore, Sneaky Vulcans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-04
Updated: 2012-10-04
Packaged: 2017-11-15 14:28:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/528286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1lostone/pseuds/1lostone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Orig written in 2011 for ST_RESPECT.  Moving fic from lj over to Ao3.</p><p>For team_spockkirk, affiliated with st_respect! </p><p>Chekov is hurt and stuck with Jim. He asks for a story to help get his mind off of his pain..</p>
            </blockquote>





	Telling Tales

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to seashadows and ladyblahblah for the beta!

  
“Keptin?”  
  
If Chekov hadn’t been lying right next to me, I would have cringed. His voice was just a pain-filled whisper.  His accent was thicker than normal from the sedative in the hypo I’d given him. God, even hearing it made my guts squirm with guilt.  
  
He was hurt because I‘d fucked up.    
  
For a second I could see him pulling me out of the way (again), pinwheeling his arms as he desperately tried to regain his balance. I felt the gravel in my skin as I slammed safely to the ground, felt the shock of contact travel up my body, heard his panicked scream as he fell over the side of the rocky formation. I had jumped up and had gone over after him. The rockslide that had slid down on top of us was also my fault. I knew how to walk on fragile surfaces. My mad scramble down into the crevasse caused the rocks to begin to roll down over the top of us.  
  
“Yeah, kid?”  Huh. All that command training was actually good for something. I sounded completely confident, like the fact that we were buried in a crevasse in the middle of fucking nowhere was no big deal. My crew would eventually find us of course, but it was a tossup on whether they would find us before we ran out of air, or the rocks shifted, crushing us to death.  
  
The emergency kit had a flare, and the freaky green cast it gave our features made the whole clusterfuck seem like something out of a nightmare. I had arranged Chekov against me, with his head pillowed on my leg. Both of his legs were broken in several places. I didn’t have a way to splint everything, and had done my best to drug him off his ass, so at least he wouldn’t feel his injuries.  
  
“You ...sound ...like Врач,” Chekov paused for a minute. I cringed inwardly again at the spaced-out sound of his voice. “Like the Doctor. Kid. It is his name for me, Keptin.”  
  
“You’re right. I didn’t even realize. Well, then, I guess that I’ll have to come up with my own name for you.”  
  
I could see him wrinkle his nose in the faint light.  It made me smile. “I do not like this nickname. It is wery unprofessional. Tiger. Kiddo. Buddy.” Chekov made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat. He must have shrugged or something, because the sound he made after was filled with pain, despite the drugs. This was fucking killing me.  I knew that I would have been worried if any other member of my crew had been hurt like this, but somehow, the fact that it was Chekov made it worse.    
  
On the bridge, it was hard not to notice that he was younger than everyone on board. Hell, his eighteenth birthday party had been pretty damn awesome, if I do say so myself. I had pulled a few strings to get us shore leave on Wrigley on the kid’s birthday, but it had been worth it for the way he had slunk into his seat two days later- carefully not making any eye contact with Sulu, who had been just as bright red and suddenly focused on the blinking lights of his console.  
  
He didn’t act young. Not really. Sure he got excited when he and Spock started geeking out over equations or theoretical physics or something, but hell. We all tended to geek out over something in our field.  Any other time Chekov acted almost painfully mature- like he felt he had to prove something to all the other, older adults around him.  
  
But now?  
  
He sounded lost. Hurt. In pain. So damn young. It was fucking killing me to listen to him.  
  
“How about Pavel. I think we can throw the regs out the window, don’t you? It’s not like Spock will be here to check off on protocol or anything.”  
  
“The Commander would be wexed if you are not following the regulations. But, I would like it wery much for you to call me Pavel, Keptin.”  
  
Pavel was silent for a few minutes after that. I rested my head against the rocks behind me and shut my eyes, trying to think of something that would distract the poor guy. The hypo was a pretty strong painkiller. I was afraid to give him a stimulant. I didn’t know what that would do to someone who was probably concussed.  The ‘fleet emergency med training had gaping holes in its knowledge base.  But hey, I did know what to do if there were sex-spores in the vicinity.  Or giant lizard-like monsters with superiority complexes.  
  
“Keptin?”  
  
“Yeah, Pavel?”  
  
“I’m not worried. The Commander will be displeased that you are lost to him again.” His voice dipped and he muttered the rest under his breath. “Better to be here than up there with the Сумасшедший, обозленный покинуть Wulcan.”  
  
The crazy, pissed off Vulcan? I made a face, wondering if my Russian was as good as I thought it was.  
  
“Uh?” My mind stalled.  
  
“It is wery good that you have this love for each other.”  
  
I actually felt my brain spasm as it begin to freak out. What the fuck? How did he know? No one was supposed to know! I opened my mouth, shut it, then opened it again. Before I could speak, Pavel continued:  
  
“You said earlier that you wish to help me. And you were wery brave by protecting me with your body when the rocks fell down. But I wish to know how you and the Commander first realized that you loved each other.”  
  
I sputtered, unable to actually form a coherent sentence. I looked down at his face, still cast in the creepy green glow. I opened my mouth again to tell him exactly what I thought of his drug-filled rambling, but he spoke before I could. “It will be helpful to keep my mind off the pain.”  He hit me with the puppy dog eyes, and I could actually feel my will to resist crumble to dust. “Like a bedtime story my мать would tell me to go to sleep.”  
  
“Uh, well, it would be a bad idea for you to sleep right now.” If it were anyone else, I would be cracking up at the sound of my voice. I sounded like Bones with a lapful of tribbles.  
  
“Please, Keptin? It’s just that... it hurts so much. I try not to be ребенка, a baby, but...” His eyes shone for a moment. One lone, crystalline tear slid slowly from the corner of his eye and down his cheek, disappearing into his hair. “It is wery painful, sir.”  
  
Motherfucker.  
  
I started speaking before I took in another breath.  
  
“I didn’t like Spock very much when I first met him. Well, hell. You were there. At the Academy hearing.”  
  
“да. It was wery shocking.”  
  
“Ah, yeah. Shocking was one word for it. Well, then Bones helped me stow away on the Enterprise, and you know what happened after that. All the craziness. Well, we still didn’t like each other much even after Nero. Sure, maybe we respected each other, I mean, I respected him. How could you not? But I was pretty sure that he wouldn’t have pissed on me if I had burst into flames.”  
  
Pavel’s laugh sounded a lot more like a giggle. Encouraged, not even sure where half this shit was coming from, I kept talking. “So yeah. Not the best start. But then... well.” I knew I was blushing, and was actually glad for a second that Pavel wouldn’t be able to see my face in all its girl-with-her-first-crush glory.  
  
“Was it romantic?”  
  
“Er. Romance? Well, not.. uh, exactly.”  
  
Pavel nodded sagely, then winced at the movement. “Ah. Of course. Keptin Kirk is not known for his romance. I do not always believe rumors, Keptin, but if you need help in that area, I believe that I can give you... what is word. Pointers if necessary. Romance was invented in Russia after all.”  
  
I bit my lip extremely hard so that I wouldn’t laugh in his face. “Ah. Uh, thanks, Pavel. I think I’m okay in that area.”  
  
“It is no matter.” Pavel sighed. “Your story is working. I am quite awake and wondering what happened next.”  
  
So was I. Fuck.  My brain cast about for something to tell him. The best lies always had some truth to them, after all.  “Well, it was just a normal day. Well, for us normal, I mean. No inter-galactic catastrophes. No freaky space aliens. Hell, I hadn’t even been hurt in weeks.  We were just eating dinner, off-shift in the Officer mess.”  
  
Spock had been irked over something. I remembered it really clearly, because it was the first time that I was able to actually guess what the slightly-raised eyebrow and too-careful movements as he cut his vegetables meant.  Spock had been ultra careful about not showing anything that even hinted at an emotion- well, since he had his hand wrapped around my neck anyway. I’d been so excited that I had grabbed Spock’s wrist as I babbled to him. He’d raised that eyebrow, looking at me in that gee-good-job-human sort of dickish way he had and had gently eased his wrist away from me, reminding me that of his aversion to touch.  
  
“Yes? And what happened next?”  
  
“Uh, It was a surprise to me. To realize that I was … kind of crazy about him. Spock was mad about something that had happened with one of his science officers. And we.. we uh.. well, you know.”  
  
We most certainly had not. Shit, I almost lost it laughing my ass off. Jesus Christ on a pogo-stick, if I ever tried to kiss Spock he’d break me into itty bitty pieces of goo with like one pinky finger and his left eyebrow or something.  
  
Pavel’s satisfied sigh made me smirk a little. I wasn’t sure if it was exactly Kosher telling him a story like this. But he seemed to enjoy it. I mean, there wasn’t much else that I could do for him. Hey. Don’t judge me. You’d do the same thing if you had a lapful of a pain-ridden Chekov crying in front of you.  
  
“I thank you for telling me Keptin. I am sure there are more wery lovely inappropriate details, but I think it is wery romantic that you are not.. how do you say? Kissing and telling. Commander Spock would be wery upset if he knew that you had shared this much with me.”  
  
Commander Spock would kick my ass into another fucking alternate reality if he knew I had told you any of this bullshit. “Uh, yeah. Thanks for understanding, Pavel.”  
  
We were silent for a few minutes. I don’t know what Pavel was thinking about, but now I couldn’t stop thinking about Spock. It was like my brain finally had permission to fantasize and I was making up for lost time.. and this was really not the time to be thinking about kissing my first officer.  
  
“Keptin?”  
  
I jumped a little, surprised at the wistful sound of Pavel’s voice. “Yeah?”  
  
I tensed when I heard the telltale sound of gravel sliding against the rocks. I looked around, frantically, half-expecting the fucking thing to slide in on top of us. Pavel didn’t seem to notice. He sighed again, and I had a brief moment of panic, wondering if this was it or not.  
  
“Will you just answer one question?”  
  
I heard the gravel again, and my heart jumped up to my throat. For a minute I forgot that he’d even asked me anything.  “Yeah. Of course. What’s up, Pavel?”  
  
“Do you love him?”  
  
I didn’t even have to think. I nodded, then realized he couldn’t see me nodding. His head was turned towards the rock face, and I realized with a sickened stomach that he had heard the rocks sliding against each other- that he was trying to distract me as much as I was trying to distract him.  
  
The rocks above us groaned as they scraped together. I slid out from under Pavel’s head, crouching over him as best I could. I could feel my nails in the soft meat of my hand. I hated being helpless. There was nothing that I could do. No order that I could give that would make this any better. Hell, I didn’t even have the certainty that it would be quick.  
  
The green light hid nothing on my Ensign’s face. He was terrified, his eyes widened, lips trembling before he forced them together. I forced a smile and shrugged, opening my mouth to speak when the sound of the phaser caused me to duck down further over Pavel’s trembling body.  
  
Phaser?  
  
Hot air blew my hair around, and for a split second I was too stunned to realize what it meant.  
  
“Captain? Try not to move. I’ll have these rocks stabilized in a jiff.”  
  
Pavel’s and my eyes met. My face must have looked just as shocked as his. I have never, ever been so fucking happy to hear Scotty’s voice in my life.  
  
“Scotty! We need Bones to--”  
  
“Yeah, yeah Jim. We know. We’ve been monitoring you from the ship. As soon as he makes sure y’all won’t be turned into human pancakes I can get to the kid.”  
  
I eased up onto my knees, sucking in the air that I could now feel around us, cooling the sweat on my body. I felt Pavel’s hand in mine and grinned back down at him, closing my eyes and just waiting for a second.  If Scotty was working on this, then I’d be debriefing Spock in no time at--  
  
Wait.  
  
My eyes popped open.  
  
They’d been monitoring us?!  
  
Fuck. Fucking motherfucking fuckity fuck fucking fuck!  
  
Clearly my face managed to communicate what I was thinking.  
  
“Oh dear.” Pavel’s voice sounded both shocked and like he was about to burst into laughter at any minute.  
  
Fortunately Bones was around to fix my aneurysm.  Not that it would do much good. If Spock had heard what I’d said then I was a dead man anyway. I had one, tiny flutter at hope that Uhura hadn’t told him- that --ohgod!-- she hadn’t been broadcasting that to the entire bridge crew before it fluttered away. No chance. She knew protocol. And even if she didn’t, Spock would have insisted on it.  
  
I sighed.  
  
I was so screwed.  
  
From the sounds above us, Scotty and his crew were making sure everything was stable. It got lighter and lighter as rocks were obliterated. When they broke through, Pavel and I both blinked at the bright light.  I could see Scotty‘s and Bones’ heads as they leaned down over the edge of the crevasse. The faint shimmer of the force-field was hard to see in the sudden brightness of the light, but I knew it had to be there. Rocks didn’t just stay in place like that without assistance.  
  
I waved at Bones who rolled his eyes at me as he barked orders for Pavel to be transported directly to sickbay.  “See ya on the ship, Jim. Pavel, hang in there, kiddo.” I stood, stretching and taking as much of a step back from him as I could. Pavel frowned at me as the light from the transporter formed around him.  
  
“Well, Jimmy. I- guess you’re next. See ya shipside.”  
  
Fucking Bones. He sounded way too chipper for a medical emergency.  
  
“Wait! Aren’t you gonna get me out of here?”  
  
“Nooo-oope!” He drew out the word. I could see the bastard’s grin from way down where I was. He was beamed away.  
  
“Scotty! Come on, what the hell? A rope? Something? A little help here, man.”  
  
“Ah, Sorry, sir. I have.. er... very explicit orders.”  
  
I could actually feel my blood pressure sky-rocket. I spoke slowly, like you did to a particularly slow kid. Or, you know. Insane engineers. “Well, as your Captain I’m telling you that you can get me the the hell out of here any...”    
  
He too was beamed away. I stood there stupidly, looking up at where he’d been only a few minutes ago, gaping. The chime-like sound of the transporter behind me caused every muscle in my body to freeze at once. I knew who would be there before he spoke. I turned slowly. Spock stood there completely calm.  
  
Unless you looked at his eyes.  
  
“Lieutenant Uhura?” Spock’s voice didn’t usually send shivers up my spine. Okay, that wasn’t true. I didn’t usually let Spock see that his voice sent shivers up my spine. It was the way that he was looking at me, almost unblinking, like a snake who had a particularly tasty mouse in front of it.  
  
“Yes, Sir.”  
  
I had a tiny moment where I imagined screaming and flailing around in fear, babbling in abject terror, but managed to restrain myself.  
  
“My orders?”  
  
“Absolutely, sir. Enterprise out.”  
  
Fucking ex-girlfriend secret language. I hated that shit. I felt like I was in a play and missing pages from the script. Still, some small bit of self-preservation made me open my mouth. “Ah, so good job, Commander. I’m sure Chekov will be fine. You guys were.. ah.. following all of that, huh?”  
  
“Indeed.” He took a small, measured step forward.  
  
I took a large, rather desperate step back. Unfortunately, I didn’t have all that far to go. It’s not like we were in a cave or anything. The surface met my back much more quickly than I would have liked.  
  
Crazy, pissed-off Wulcan. Er, Vulcan. Right.  
  
“So, uh. on a scale of  one to ten, just how furious are you? I swear I didn’t mean to embarrass you, Spock. He was hurt and he puppy dog eyed me and--”  
  
“Be silent.” Spock took another step forward and I shut my mouth with a snap. We weren’t touching, but it was a close thing. I could feel the heat from his body, and it caused my own to react in all sorts of extremely unhelpful ways. I pressed back into the rocks, trying to put another inch between us. Spock matched my step, keeping the same minute amount of space between us. My uniform brushed against his with a tiny whisper of sound.  
  
“Okay.” My mutter was shaky. God knows how badly I’d humiliated him. He had every reason to be angry with me.  
  
“Your story was factually incorrect.”  
  
Yeah, way to state the obvious, Spock.  I kept that little gem behind my teeth though.  
Spock could explain until he was green in the face about how Vulcans didn’t feel anything- but I usually tended to ignore it. I knew exactly how mad this particular Vulcan could get. I licked my lips, nervously trying to think of something to say.  
  
“Why did you use me in such a way? Were you hoping to indulge yourself in the selfish human emotion of revenge?”  
  
“What-  no!”  
  
Spock spoke over my protest without even acknowledging that I’d said anything. “If that was your intention, then you have erred in your assumption. Nyota assured me that  I was the only one to hear your mockery. And it is quite likely that Ensign Chekov will not remember that conversation at all.”  
  
It slowly dawned on me that Spock wasn’t pissed... he was hurt.  I was moving before I even thought about my actions. I looked at my hands on Spock’s shoulders like they belonged to someone else. He didn’t move, but his eyes darkened as he stared at me.  
“Spock, did you hear everything?”  
  
“I heard nothing. Nyota sent the communication textually to my PADD while I made sure of your safe return.”  
  
I licked my lips again, watching as his gaze shifted briefly down to my mouth before jumping guiltily up to my eyes.    
  
“I.. uh. I’ve never done this before, so you’ll have to bear with me.” I gave his shoulders a quick squeeze. “First off, I never meant for you to be hurt by anything I said. Chekov was in a lot of pain and I was telling him... sort of a bedtime story.”  
  
I had to pause for another minute to collect my thoughts. I knew that I basically had one shot at this, and needed to make sure that it wasn’t fucked up.  
  
“Second of all- yeah. I never meant for you to hear that. But not because I wanted to embarrass you, Spock. You have to know that I’m not like that. You’ve been here in the black with me for almost two years, man.”  
  
Spock nodded tersely. The muscles of his shoulders felt like wood under my hands. “It is not like your normal behavior, no.”  
  
It was my turn to nod. “Well, I told him that... because I... Because I wanted it to be true.”  
  
Spock’s eyes widened fractionally, but he was otherwise mute as he stood there. The silence stretched between us to something uncomfortable, and I let my hands drop, feeling horribly awkward.  
  
I looked down, blushing. I wasn’t sure how many fucking regulations I had just broken. Spock could probably tell me, if he were... you know... interested in actually speaking to me again. I was thinking so furiously that I missed it when Spock moved.  
  
There was a very slight, almost non-existent slide of Spock’s fingers against my own.    
  
Spock was kissing me.  
  
I watched him, dumbfounded as his elegant fingers slid against my own callused ones, sliding slowly down the front and over the tips, then back up as I automatically raised my own hand, bringing it up so that our fingers could slide together. Spock shivered slightly as I copied his movements and, delighted, I was able to meet his gaze with my own.  
  
“Jim.”  
  
“Hmm?” I branched out from just the two fingers, exploring his hand with my own, the tips of our fingers an intimate caress.  
  
Spock leaned forward and kissed me, his lips just as softly exploring my own as his fingers were to mine.  There was a bright burst of heat as our tongues slid against each other, and Spock must have forgotten that he had asked me a question or something. Or maybe I just forgot everything. I don’t know. It was amazing, sweet and so fragile- I was afraid to stop in case Spock came to his senses, and I was afraid not to stop in case Spock didn’t come to his senses.  
  
You can only go so long without breathing though. It absolutely killed me to watch as Spock moved slightly away, green flush on his cheeks, his eyes slowly opening to stare back at me.  
  
“You did not answer the Ensign’s question.” Spock’s voice was a little breathy as I slid my fingernail slightly over his knuckle.  
  
I bit my lip, unable to keep the dopey grin off of my face as I stared up at him.  
  
Spock’s own lips twisted into a tiny half-smile.  “Then again,” It was my turn to shiver as his other hand came up to cup my cheek. “Perhaps you did.”  
  
  
  
  
The End!

 


End file.
